The Fall of Berlin Wall | Germany Unification | Explained by Sohail Mayo

 Let's begin our story from World War II.

Like you already know World War II was fought between the Axis countries and the Allied countries. The Axis countries were Germany, Italy, and Japan. And the Allied countries included the USA, France, the UK, and the Soviet Union.

There was a war between the two groups. And the Axis countries lost the war. Germany lost World War II. Hitler committed suicide.After Germany lost the war, what happened next?

After Hiter's death, the Allied countries decided to take Germany under their control. By dividing it into four parts. East Germany was given to the Soviet Union. And West Germany was divided into three different parts. One of each went to the USA, the UK, and France. Later, these three parts were reunited. And they became West Germany. And the part belonging to the Soviet Union was East Germany. This divide was not only political and geographical but also an ideological divide. The Soviet Union was inspired by the Communist ideology. And the Allied countries, America, Britain, and France, were inspired by the Capitalist ideology. Capitalist ideology dominated West Germany. And Communist ideology dominated East Germany. It wasn't that the Germans themselves were very influenced by these ideologies. It wasn't like the East Germans were communists and the West Germans were capitalists. They were forced into being divided. By the agreement among the Allied countries. The Germans living in these areas on either part would often meet each other.

They would often cross the border to go from the West to the East and from the East to the West. Simply if they wanted to watch a cinema in the theatres or even if they had to shop. Permanent migrations also started happening As in people were moving from one country to the other permanently. And these permanent migrations could be seen from only one of the sides. People from East Germany would go to the West and never the other way around. Why was it so?

The economies of the Soviet Union and the other communist countries

were very centralized. Because of the centralized control,

people would no doubt get free education and healthcare which was a good thing, but there weren't many jobs. There were very few jobs and the unemployment was very high. So because of lack of jobs, East Germans migrated into West Germany. The situation was so bad that

till 1961, 20% of the population of East Germany had migrated into West Germany. Around 3.5 million people. So it was a troubling matter for the government of East Germany. What could they have done to stop this 'Brain Drain'? They began to think of a solution. The situation in Berlin was strange. If you'll see the map, Berlin lies entirely in East Germany.

But it was the capital. So in the post-war agreement was decided that

Berlin would also be divided into two parts. One of the parts would be East Berlin under the influence of the Soviet Union.

And the other part would be West Berlin under the influence of the Allies.

So basically, Berlin became like an island. Especially, the part of West Berlin. The Allies-controlled area was surrounded by the Soviet-controlled areas from all sides. East Germany's leader Walter Ulbricht,

asked the Soviet Union about what should be done there.

"The sight of Vienna in the spring of 1961

is that of a historic city fully recovered from the ravages of World War II?

Now, in the spring of 1961,

Vienna offered its hospitality for a personal meeting between two world leaders against a background of historic landmarks."

When the Soviet Union talked with the US President regarding this

they asked for the entire West Berlin to be given to them.

That America should recall its forces. And West Berlin as well as East Berlin become a part of East Germany. But obviously, the USA refused to do it. It would've been an embarrassing situation for them. So what else could've been done then? Rumors of a wall to be built along the middle of Berlin started. A wall that would separate East Berlin and West Berlin.

And when Ulbricht was asked at a press conference

if he intended to build such a wall, he claimed that they had no intentions of building any walls. But like every politician, he too was a liar.

"...busy building flats. And their manpower is being put to full use in these projects. Nobody has any intention of building a wall." In June and July, the famous World Film Festival took place in Berlin where filmmakers around the world come together.On 13th August, the world suddenly came to know that they had built a wall like this to divide East Berlin and West Berlin.

And because the area of West Germany was entirely in East Germany's part, he Berlin Wall wasn't limited to only one side. The wall surrounded West Berlin entirely. And there were checkpoints along the wall.

Like this one. This was a famous checkpoint named Charlie Checkpoint.

In 1961, there was a major standoff here between the USA and the Soviet Union. The American tanks came from one side and the Soviet Union's tanks came from the other. People thought that World War III would begin. But fortunately, that didn't happen.

And they left peacefully.In February 1990, the first free and fair elections were conducted in East Germany. And the party that won the election was strongly favoring that both the Germanies should be united. For this reason, on 3rd October 1990, East Germany and West Germany were finally reunified and once again there was only one country called Germany.

This ideology of unification was an ideology promoting unity. This spread to the other European countries as well.

Because of this, the European Union was later formed. That is a story for some other time, some other blog